Jumat, 20 April 2012

Council services grounded because Cory won't give them any diesel

It has emerged that many Cornwall Council services in the East have been grounded because control of fuel tanks at various depots has passed to Cory, the new waste and recycling contractors - and they won't give any fuel to council services.

Needless to say this isn't what is meant to be happening! But there is a huge range of frontline officers based at the Windwhistle depot in Bodmin who seem to have been affected by the problem.

At today's briefing on the problems of the new waste contract I raised this problem because of an email I had received from the dog warden who covers the Launceston area. He had been due to come to Launceston earlier this week but emailed me because he had not been able to get any diesel for his van. He wrote:

"When Cory took over the refuse contract they also took over the fuel tanks and we are not allowed to re-fuel there any more. At the moment we are waiting for fuel cards to arrive. As soon as they are available and I have fuelled up I will be up and do a visit."

At today's meeting I asked how many other services had been affected. The answer I was given was not promising. I was told that any affected drivers had been given fuel cards to enable them to get fuel from a local petrol station. Clearly in this case, however, that hadn't happened and the officer was confined to base as a result.

Obviously this isn't on the same scale as the huge problems being faced with the waste and recycling contract itself. But it just goes to show that the implications of the new contract were not properly thought through and other services have suffered as a result.